This Columbus couple pledges $5 million to make med school more affordable in Georgia
Georgia needs more than 2,000 additional primary care physicians to meet the national average ratio per state population, according to the Emory University School of Medicine.
Aflac CEO Dan Amos and his wife, Aflac Foundation president Kathelen Amos, of Columbus, are helping to meet that need.
They have pledged a $5 million gift to establish the Kathelen and Dan Amos Medical Student Loan Forgiveness Program at Emory.
The donation is expected to boost the school’s ability to attract top medical school students, motivate them to practice in Georgia and work in primary care instead of more lucrative specialties.
Emory-trained physicians accepted into the loan forgiveness program must work 2-5 years as a primary care doctor in Georgia, depending on how much financial assistance they have received for their medical degree. The primary care specialties are pediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine and geriatrics,
Prompted by the $100 million gift Home Depot cofounder Ken Langone and his wife, Elaine, made to New York University in 2018 to provide free tuition for its medical school students, Kathelen started having “some conversations at Emory with what would be a way to have the most impact on their students and also to have an impact for our fellow Georgians,” she told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Kathelen, a former nurse, has seen the need up close.
“You see the lack of access to services, either because of geography or availability,” she said. “… I know now there are a number of counties with no hospitals and no pediatricians. … We have spent the majority of our lives in Columbus, but our family roots go back to the small towns of Alabama and Florida, and I just have a heart for those parts of our state.”
Dan has noticed the primary healthcare deficit among Aflac employees who live outside Columbus.
“They’re in small, rural areas that just do not have the healthcare they need,” he said.
And being in the insurance business, Dan added, “I see firsthand how quality care can make a big difference. So we want to make sure these rural places in Georgia, as much possible, can get the care to the people that they need to get it to, and we think this might help in some way.”
Donations from the Amos family often are done privately, but Kathelen said they chose to make this gift public to encourage additional contributions.
“We would love to have more support for it,” she said.
The estimated cost of attendance for Emory medical school students during the 2021-22 academic year is $90,590, and the average debt for the school’s graduates in 2020 was $192,000, according to its website.
“Student debt is a major contributor to student and resident anxiety, depression and burnout,” Dr. Vikas P. Sukhatme, dean of the Emory School of Medicine, said in a news release. “We are tremendously grateful for the Amos family’s generosity and faith in the talented, young medical professionals and students we are training at Emory. Together we can make a profound impact on health care for families everywhere.”
Emory medical school students, graduates in residency training or in their first five years of practice may apply for as much as $40,000 in tuition credit or loan forgiveness per year up to a maximum total of $160,000 per recipient, Emory communications manager Jill Wu told the L-E.
The first award of $40,000 obligates the recipient to practice for two years in Georgia. Each additional award requires an additional year of practice in the state, amounting to five years if the maximum is awarded, Wu said.
The Amos gift is expected to enable Emory to make 23 awards to medical school students per year over five years, understanding some students will receive multiple awards, Wu said.
“We anticipate a benefit to 80-85 total recipients,” she said.
Kathelen Amos retired from Aflac as executive vice president after working 20 years at the supplemental insurance company. She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from Emory, her law degree from the University of Georgia and her nursing degree from Columbus Technical College. She has served on the Emory Board of Trustees for 12 years.
Dan Amos has been CEO of Aflac for 31 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in insurance and risk management from UGA. He is a former chairman for the University of Georgia Foundation and a former trustee for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
How To Donate
To donate to the Kathelen and Dan Amos Medical Student Loan Forgiveness Program at Emory University, contact Vicki Riedel, assistant vice president for advancement, at 404-358-2201 or vriedel@emory.edu
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 2:09 PM.
